1841.] BOUNDARIES. 429 



of the struggles between the different factions for the ascen- 

 dency. Matters remained pretty much in this condition, till 

 after the termination of the war with the United States, and 

 the cession to them of Upper California. 



This territory, now belonging to the American Union, em- 

 braces an area of 448,961 square miles. It extends along tho 

 Pacific coast, from about the thirty-second parallel of north 

 latitude, a distance of near seven hundred miles, to the 

 forty-second parallel, the southern boundary of Oregon. On 

 the east, it is bounded by New Mexico. During the long 

 period which transpired between its discovery and its cession 

 to the United States, this vast tract of country was frequent- 

 ly visited by men of science, from all parts of the world. Re- 

 peated examinations were made by learned and enterprising 

 officers and civilians ; but none of them discovered the impor- 

 tant fact, that the mountain torrents of the Sierra Nevada 

 were constantly pouring down their golden sands into the 

 valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The glittering 

 particles twinkled beneath their feet, in the ravines which they 

 explored, or glistened in the water-courses which they forded, 

 yet they passed them by unheeded. Not a legend or tradition 

 was heard among the white settlers, or the aborigines, that 

 attracted their curiosity. A nation's ransom lay within their 

 grasp, but, strange to say, it escaped their notice — it flashed 

 and sparkled all in vain.* 



The Russian American Company had a large establishment 

 at Ross and Bodega, ninety miles north of San Francisco, 

 founded in the year 1812 ; and factories were also established 

 in the territory by the Hudson Bay Company. Their agents 

 and employes ransacked the whole country west of the Sierra 

 Nevada, or Snowy Mountain, in search of game. In 1838, 

 Captain Sutter, formerly an officer in the Swiss Guards of 

 Charles X, King of France, emigrated from the state of 

 Missouri to Upper California, and obtained from the Mexican 

 government a conditional grant of thirty leagues square of 



* A gold placera was discovered some years ago, near the mission of San Fer- 

 nando, but it was very little worked, pn account of the want of water. 



